Dear Agent:
What do you really think of speed-pitching events at conferences? Do
you secretly hate them? And how many of your new authors do you find at
writing conferences, versus the slush pile, versus other methods?

Well, let’s see. Here are some things that have happened to me at speed-dating-style pitch sessions:

•
After I said I would not be interested in looking at a man’s poetry
collection, he said he would kill himself—and the police had to be
called.

• An octogenarian and his wife pitched his mystery and
she mouthed his memorized pitch next to him the whole time he talked,
and then clapped and cried when he was done—and I had to sit there
knowing from the start that a 42,000-word World War II mystery (which is
far too short to be viable, for starters) was something I was for sure
about to say no to. To this octogenarian’s life dream. In front of his
lifelong soul mate. Thank goodness the bar was within sprinting
distance.

• A woman sat down across from me and opened with,
“Jesus already told me you would be my agent, so I’m not nervous at
all.” I said, “That’s weird, when we had coffee the other day, he didn’t
mention you.” And then I chuckled. She did not. And then my bladder
loosened a bit in fear.

In the end, I very much like talking to
authors at conferences, but I wouldn’t buy a car from a guy who just
tells me about it; I need to see how she rides. So these days, when I’m
invited to participate in pitch sessions at writing events I attend, I
decline, but instead offer to take a look, in advance, at 10 pages of
the manuscript from each author who wished to pitch me, and to leave a
detailed critique for each one at the registration desk. I realize not
every agent (maybe not any other agent) favors this approach, but in my
case, I feel that this is more helpful for the writers, and better
suited for my evaluation style, too. If I want to meet with someone, I
leave a note and we connect.

Other than that, I am totally fine with
someone coming up to me anywhere, anytime, and telling me about his
book, but not in organized pitch sessions. It’s just too much pressure
on the authors. And my bladder.

Oh: And as for my own stats,
before adopting this policy, I signed five clients (and sold four of
their books to publishers) in five years’ worth of pitch sessions. So,
while connecting at those events does happen, that’s not a huge
percentage of my list. Again, that’s not the case for every agent, but
for me, the majority of my clients still find me through the regular
query inbox.

Thanks for contributing your important time to post such an interesting & useful blog Barbara Poelle, Guest Column at Writer's Digest. It would be knowledgeable & resources are always of great need to everyone. Please keep continue sharing.

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